Honestly

Today I flagged down a taxi and when I went to get in I saw something on the back seat that perhaps a previous passenger had left. I pointed it out to the driver and he turned around and picked it up and opened it. It looked like a large fancy scientific calculator that some student had left. I got in and he asked if it was okay to go back to where he had let his last passenger off. It was only about a block away – though to get there we had to drive across a field to where a paved sidewalk too small for a car goes on up the hill into a crowded low cost boarding house area. Three young guys were sitting on a nearby porch talking. I heard the driver ask them about a person in a green shirt and they grunted and pointed up the hill (where cars cannot go) and one of them came down and got the calculator.

We took off and the driver said he often finds things people leave behind even cellphones. He said he always returns them because there’s One who knows, and he pointed to the sky. It was very heartening to see an ordinary citizen going out of his way to return a lost item. (And he didn’t turn the meter on until he was back on the main road where I had flagged him down!)

A friend was telling me about her niece who works at a gas station. She recently got a very nice cellphone for about 1/4th of the cost of a used phone from a taxi driver who regularly fills up at that station. He apparently often finds cell phones left behind in his taxi. Instead of bothering to try to return them he just sells them cheap to the gas station employees. He has even found nice camera phones. He has found as many as four in the course of one week. Whenever he shows up to fill up with gas, the employees come running to see if he has any new cellphones for sale.

What a world.

When life gives you floods go swimming

It seems we are getting lots of experience these days with utility failures. Yesterday afternoon I returned home in another torrential downpour. This time I had taken my flip flops along so I wore them home in the rain. That way I could wade in the water and not ruin my shoes. Nothing was deeper than mid-calf and I was able to find a taxi waiting on the other side of the worst part. The driver complained all the way about all the flooding and traffic. I tried to cheer him up by reminding him how much worse the capital city would be and he did indeed brighten considerably thinking about that!

When I arived home there was no electricity. Apparently a coconut tree had fallen and snapped some wires near our place. Like I said yesterday, falling trees is one of the common results of too much rain. Anyway I tried to light our old kerosene lamp but realized in time that it now leaks. So I decided to light candles instead and then stumbled around trying to get things put away.

The power eventually came back on, but this morning the telephone doesn’t work, nor the internet. I called a friend on my cellphone so they are going to call the phone company for me and report it.

Meanwhile the poor garden is a mess of smashed plants and flower pots but the huge limb that fell has been mostly cleared out and it turns out it didn’t damage the roof or the wall it was balanced on. Even though it’s disheartening to look at the mess in the garden, it’s probably good in the long run. Now it will have more sunshine. Almost everything will have to be cut back which will allow for new growth. Some things will have to be replanted and some replaced. A lot of plants around here can be propagated by trimming the stem of a broken-off piece and replanting it. So you can end up with more than you started with.

Maybe in the same way all the storms and hassles of life, the big and the little can bring some good to us too. I like the attitude of these kids: When life gives you floods go swimming! -->

* Pictures swiped from local paper.

The trees are falling

This afternoon I was jerked to attention by a loud, drawn-out, tearing, rumbling crash and an earth-shaking thud. After peeking out the window and seeing nothing obvious I ran to the door to see what on earth had happened. Apparently an ancient moss covered mango tree in the lot next to our building had fallen. It must have been cut down on purpose though I don't recall hearing chopping.

An hour later a tremendous downpour started up with thunder and even wind. Soon there was another drawn-out tearing crash. But this time it was in our back yard and it was NOT on purpose!

A HUGE chunk of our tropical almond tree had broken off and rebounded off the concrete wall and broken into more pieces. Big branches are suspended on our wire clotheslines, others are balanced on the concrete wall and extending over to the the neighbor's roof and some small ones even up on the the second floor roof. But what a perfect fall! It couldn't have fallen better if somebody had tried! The biggest part fell vertically right next to the base of the trunk. (I couldn't get back there to take a picture cuz of the rain - plus there's a lot more of the tree still standing!) The weight of the branch on the neighbor's roof is resting mostly on the concrete wall - not on the roof.

We've been asking to have the tree cut back for a couple of years. But I doubt they would have cut it as well as this! Since it is still raining and almost sunset we'll have to wait until tomorrow to start cleaning up the mess.

This is another sort of thing that happens when the ITCZ meets up with the Tropical Wave.

When the ITCZ meets the Tropical Wave

One of the things I miss living in the second and third of my worlds is the Weather Channel. Of course weather around here is pretty predicatable, at least temperatures stay within a narrow range and precipitation is of one kind only. After all this time I was excited to have found a scientific explanation for what local weather we do have. Sort of. Weather here seems to be driven by two main things: the Intertropical convergence zone and Tropical waves.

The Intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is basically a band of clouds and thunderstorms that circles the globe near the equator. It is where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern hemispheres meet. It moves north and south with the seasons. (Red represents July, blue January, though obviously not this year!)

Tropical waves are the bottom edges of elongated high pressure ridges that move across the oceans from east to west. The bottom edges get kind of ragged and unstable and tend to produce a lot of rain and it is thought that they can also be instrumental in producing hurricanes and typhoons.

So what happens when a Tropical Wave meets up with the ITCZ? Well, I think we are finding out! We had a lot of rain last week and I once again realized the disadvantages of small umbrellas. The heavy rain continues this week. The other night it poured all night long after having poured all evening. There was flooding in many parts of the city, which isn't unusual but this time they even cancelled school in some areas! Our new neighbor found out what we meant by the flooding garage under his place. Thankfully his little sedan still started this morning.

More on rice crisis

According to the local paper the Secretary of Tourism said :

...the issue is not the shortage of supply but the unexplained steep increase in the prices of commercial rice. The prices of rice increased by as much as [36 cents] in some parts of [the area] in a span of two weeks from [$0.77 - $1.14] amidst assurance from government agencies that there is more than ample supply to last the lean months of July to September. "It is the speculation in the prices of rice that is driving its prices up, it is the same thing with oil," he said. "The government is very suspicious on the reason behind the increase of the prices of rice," he added.

Yeah, so are we.

Rice Crisis

Apparently all the talk about a rice crisis has produced one, at least locally. In the last week the already high pice of rice increased another 25%. Yesterday at the market the best rice was selling for $1.15/kilo, up from about $0.95 last week. The price of the government subsidized rice was selling for $0.41- 0.72/kilo. This government rice is a mix of various kinds of old stock, so the cheaper stuff is old and tends to be yellowed, broken, and dirty. It is also likely to have a high mold content. In the last few days there have been huge lines of people waiting to buy up to the daily limit of 2 kilos.

This is incredibly high for poorer families, especially when the minimum wage for a full time “official” laborer is $3.18 per day. That is, if he is a full time “official” worker working for a larger company. A great number of people earn less than that because they are considered “temporary” or they work on a comission or they work for a smaller business. This comes at a time when people are also scrambling for extra money to buy school supplies and uniforms. One 15 year old who was going to finally get the opportunity to start high school this year – most kids start at age 12 - was just told by her mom that she may have to get a job instead to try to help the family instead of going to school. Yes, legally 15 year olds can’t work. But the reality is that they can and do. They are hired for extremely low wages as house helpers, they help in home-based eateries, and in the back rooms of other small businesses.

It is not only rice. The price of gasoline has been going up and recently resulted in higher fares for public transportation. It also results in higher prices for everything else. Already the shops and markets seem a bit quieter as people are using more of their money for rice and transportation and less for other stuff.

Yesterday we found out in the news that the unusally high prices of rice are only in this region of the country. The city council had an emergency meeting and decided to check out rumors of rice hoarding. Officials have reportedly begun checking out local rice sellers and large millers. It is a crime to hoard rice in this city. The city council has also asked that more government subsidized rice be allotted to this area. They also asked the public to leave the subsidized rice for the poor. (Yeah, like other people aren’t also feeling the pinch.) They also talked about trying to increase rice production in the area.

We shall see. If the price doesn’t come down soon we may end up with major problems here. The poor simply cannot afford it.

Dripping

It’s that time of year when the humidity gets so high it just falls out of the sky as rain. Last month I was attending an evening funeral service. It was outdoors and the sun had already set but it was still incredibly hot. Everybody was wet with perspiration just sitting there doing nothing. Suddenly in the middle of the service it seemed that the air saturation hit 100% and condensed into rain. It was like the sky just suddenly dropped all its moisture in the form of an exceedingly hard downpour. No thunder, no lightening, no wind, no warning. Wham! And soon it was over.

The same thing has been happening here this week. Last night for example, I was standing outside watching the cat eat. Doing nothing. Just standing there. Perspiration was just welling up and running in rivers down my face, neck, arms, back, everywhere. Not too long afterwards the sky opened up and dumped an incredibly torrential downpour. Again, no thunder, no lightning, no wind, no sprinkling, no warning. Wham! It didn’t last more than 10-15 minutes but it was an incredible amount of water.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if you bathed in an antiperspirant? Would your body blow like a volcano because the sweat couldn’t come out??? It sure would be interesting to try it and see. Maybe one of these days I will – some time when I am sure the water won’t go off in case I need an emergency bath!

And that brings up another thing. Days like these do make me wonder about this common sports drink sold around Asia, like, uh, exactly what is in it????? Is this even appetizing???? Maybe you enjoy it better if you don't speak English????

Sometimes it's better not to know

Thursday the internet was down all day – some major problem with the server affecting half the country. Friday the power was off. Somebody bombed two major transmission towers on the other side of the island. Today the water has been off all day and is still off. In fact we hear it won’t be back on until tomorrow. After all that I’m kind of starting to get nervous about what new thing tomorrow might bring!

We never did hear what caused the internet problem but it seems to be fixed. The electricity is on but I can hear the back up generator down the road going so the transmission towers apparently aren’t fixed yet. Nobody seems to have any idea why somebody keep bombing transmission towers. Is it rebels trying to send some message that nobody seems to be understanding, or at least can’t do anything about? Is it bored teenagers out for some sort of obscure fun? Is it sabateurs paid by somebody to hassle the electric company – after all, we heard that there had been some clandestine deal being brokered by some big fish to sell it to a Chinese company. It’s supposedly off now, but it does make you wonder. As for the water, we heard they are draining a reservoir. Reminds me of the time a reservoir in the capital city was closed for a day while they looked for the body of a guy who’d fallen in and drowned. They didn’t find him so they eventually threw a bunch of chlorine in and turned the water back on. Perhaps his remains are still stuck in a pipe somewhere.... I guess maybe sometimes it’s better that we don’t know why things aren’t working.

Where is Solomon?

Dealing with public health issues requires the wisdom of Solomon. Three recent public health issues come to mind: iodized salt, smoking, and iron fortification.

We all assumed that iodizing salt is a good thing, right? It is supposed to prevent unsightly goiter. In the second of my worlds there is a campaign in process to introduce iodinization. I recall a couple of young ladies going around house to house in a No village three years ago. At each house they would ask to borrow a little salt. When the people brought the salt they put it on a piece of paper and dripped a little liquid on it. If it turned purple it meant the salt was iodized and the family was praised. If it did not turn purple they were lectured on the value of buying iodized salt. Many people do now use iodized salt although coarse uniodized salt is still available and is still a little cheaper.

In the third of my worlds all salt is now iodized. If there is any uniodized salt at all, I do not know where to find it. But there has been an unanticipated side effect. According to a local endocrinologist who did research into the problem, this country never really had a problem with goiter. Most of the population also regularly eats fish and other seafood. (So I wonder why they decided to outlaw uniodized salt in the first place???) Since the phasing out of uniodized salt, however, they have seen a rash of cases of hyperthyroidism. According to the doctor, giving iodine to some people is like throwing fuel on a fire and the health problems that have resulted are worse than the problem that the iodinization was supposed to have helped.

A second public health issue is smoking. It is well known that many diseases are exacerbated by smoking. And smoke is certainly annoying to non-smokers. No one was happier than me when smoking was banned on airplanes. No more coughing and sneezing when everybody lit up after the meal (of course meals on planes are also a thing of the past it seems). Gradually the ban was extended to malls, large stores, restaurants, bars, until now about the only place you can smoke is in your own house. In one sense as a non-smoker, it’s fine with me if nobody ever smokes, but from the point of personal rights and freedom it does seem a bit overkill to not even be able to smoke outside. After all, a smoker outside is totally negligible in comparison to auto fumes and the constant burning of trash that goes on. (Did I mention that burning a smelly old tire is considered by some a way to cure disease? It is reputed to scare off evil spirits. I’d trade that foul smell for a smoker any day!)

The third public health issue that is currently underway is the requirement that all rice be fortified with iron. As mentioned in a previous post, a large percentage of people in this country are reputed to be anemic, so it was decided that the rice should be iron fortified. All stores and restaurants that sell rice are required by law to sell iron fortified rice, whether cooked or raw. As mentioned previously, people do not like the iron fortified rice. They say it looks dirty, doesn’t taste good and is gritty and they don’t like to buy it. So to maintain sales, stores have stopped premixing the iron pellets into the rice and instead include the pellet packets (1 packet per kilo) in the bags of rice so that people can mix it themselves. Of course it mostly ends up in the trash. (One more thing to burn???)

Apparently however, the law doesn’t require rice sold in the market to be iron fortified. Most poor people (who are more likely to be anemic) buy their rice at the market because they can find poorer grades of rice than what is sold in stores and so it’s a little cheaper. And now it’s even cheaper still because the stores have to pay for the iron fortifcation packets. Poor people also don’t tend to eat at restaurants. They are more likely to eat at little household run eateries which are not subject to the law. Those people also do not serve iron fortified rice because it is more expensive and they want to make a profit. So as it turns out, the poor who are anemic are not benefitting from the iron fortified rice. It is the middle class who probably is not anemic who is dealing with having to deal with the higher price and throw away the pellet packets.

So, three public health issues. Where is Solomon?

Who says TV is addicting?

Do you ever wonder about stuff like this?

Experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman reveal that when a person watches television, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is the seat of logical thought. Here, information is broken down into its component parts and critically analyzed. The right brain, owever, treats incoming data uncritically, processing information in wholes, leading to emotional, rather than logical responses. The shift from left to right brain activity also causes the release of endorphins, the body's own natural opiates--thus, it is possible to become physically addicted to watching television, a hypothesis borne out by numerous studies which have shown that very few people are able to kick the television habit. It's no longer an overstatement to note that the youth today that are raised and taught through network television are intellectually dead by their early teens.

From:
Mass Mind Control Through Network Television: Are Your Thoughts Your Own? by Alex Ansari, InformationLiberation.com, Apr 21, 2008

A few months ago I was out in a No village. That village has had electricity for over 10 years now. and more and more electrical gadgets are appearing all the time -- TVs, radios, stereos, small refrigerators, irons, cake mixers, etc. I was staying at a house without a TV but they did have a computer which is sometimes used for watching CD movies. Somebody acquired a CD advertising some health supplement with video promos in half a dozen languages. So the people in the household decided to watch it. It was astonishing to me to see the whole group sitting in front of that computer screen mesmerized by some promo in languages they did not understand. I tried talking to them – they were like zombies, barely able to acknowledge my presence, having to make tremendous efforts to pull their eyes away from two suited guys sitting in a studio jabbering in Korean. Hardly an action flick! Every one of them was like that from the three year old to the elderly visiting auntie. Busy absorbing all those endorphans, I guess. A very sobering illustration of the quote above.